OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XI, Issue 574, 9 November 1880, Page 6

OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) V Melbourne, November 2. We are shortly to have another evening paper. The proprietors are determined to spare no expense in making it a success. Already, they have secured the services of a well-known, London Pressman, who is at present in Melbourne for the,benefit of his health. I fancy if the new paper is well edited, the Evening Herald will, if it wishes to keep alive, have to materially improve. The Beaufort Advocate states that the Victorian gold returns for the past nine months of this year show an increase of 60,0000z5. over and above the returns for the same period for last year. Belgravia in a recent issne say 3 : —" There' is no need to descant on the enormous number of rabbits annually imported from Ostend to afford the town artisan a savory dinner at a low price. Regular rabbit farms are maintained on the sandbanks of the low country, where the creatures are daily fed with "grass and turnips like so many sheep, until their time comes to be sent over to London or Grimsby in large flat hampers. Dealers frequently keep them alive at these ports until demands grow brisk; In one year recently no fewer than 150,000 rabbits were sent from Ostend to London weekly during the season. Ludicrous as the idea may seem, it is no less the fact that some English land owners who find a difficulty in getting a fair rent for their land from agriculturists are trying experiment of allowing their farms to become huge rabbit warrens. Last week no less than 10,000 rabbits, killed on an estate in Essex, were sold at Is 6d apiece in London. A good many of- these of course appeared in their usual form, but by far the largest number reached the market as l Ostend rabbits,' that is skinned. The reason of this is that the Belgian taxidermists have discovered a method of treating rabbit skins which renders them even to the experienced eyes of sceptical dealers almost undistinguishable' from seal skins. Possession of a muff, cloak or hat in which there.is. fux is the highest ambition of a.goodly majority of the fair sex." A return Ball was given to his Worship the Mayor last evening at the Town Hall. Over 1,200 persons were present, including his Excellency the Governor and the officers of the various men-of-war now in the Bay. Notwithstanding the short period our Exhibition has been open, interest seems to have completely died put. The daily attendances are very small—yesterday the building was nearly deserted. Dr L. L. Smith's Totalisator Bill has passed the Assembly by a majority of seven votes. The bookmakers are naturally very bitter against the Doctor for spoiling their trade. The colony at large has reason to be grateful to Dr Smith for the good he has done. Mr Gardiner, the member for Carlton, in speaking against the measure, stated his belief that the totalisator would lead ladies to gamble, and instead of confining their betting to a few pairs of gloves they would stake money and thereby injure the tradesmen who sell gloves ! This certainly is a very.far-fetched reason against the totalisatoi; and one which carries no weight. The libel case, M'Tntyre v. Syme, in which plaintiff sought to recover £SOOO damages against the proprietors of the Age for publishing a paragraph to the effect that he (Mr M'lntyre) had been bought over by the Service Government by an appointment given to his son, is concluded. The jury, after deliberating two hours, returned a verdict for £l5O damages.